Professional Experience
Dan Mulvihill has over twenty years of experience in environmental law, with extensive experience in private practice and government service. Dan focuses his work on matters related to the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (Superfund) and related state laws. His Superfund work includes negotiating on behalf of clients with federal and state agencies, and he also has extensive experience litigating cost recovery and contribution cases brought against other liable parties. Dan’s litigation experience includes defending clients in multi-district environmental tort matters and serving as the State of New York’s lead trial lawyer in cost recovery and natural resource damages actions under New York’s State Superfund program.
Dan also assists clients in negotiating permits and compliance with the federal Clean Water Act and state equivalents and works with municipal water utilities on a variety of environmental and energy matters.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Prior to joining Cable Huston, Dan was Deputy General Counsel for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which serves as the city’s water supply and wastewater utility. Dan represented the agency in Superfund matters and counseled the agency’s bureau of water supply in watershed protection and compliance issues under the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Dan also served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York, serving as the Section Chief for the Cost Recovery Division in the Office of the Attorney General’s Environmental Protection Bureau.
Prior to entering government service, Dan was an attorney at Patton Boggs in Newark, New Jersey, where he focused his practice on environmental litigation, including several CERCLA cost recovery and environmental tort matters. At Patton Boggs, Dan also represented clients in a variety of litigation matters, including antitrust, consumer fraud, insurance coverage and personal injury actions. Dan was also an environmental associate at Latham & Watkins in New Jersey and started his legal career as a litigation associate in Sidley Austin’s New York office.
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
- Represented the New York City Department of Environmental Protection in Superfund matters, including the Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek Superfund Sites, assisting the agency regarding allocation of liability, remedial design and implementation of a CERLCA remedy, and the evaluation of natural resource damages.
- Served as the State of New York’s lead trial lawyer in a successful CERCLA cost recovery and natural resource damages arising from multiple plumes of VOC contamination in groundwater on Long Island. The court also held on summary judgment that defendants were liable for natural resource damages. See New York v. Next Millennium Realty LLC, 160 F.Supp.3d 485 (E.D.N.Y. 2016).
- Developed and litigated a successful CERCLA cost recovery claim against the United States for perchlorate contamination at a former defense contractor facility in Southern California.
- Obtained an order that the purchaser and his client’s property, and the purchaser’s corporate successor were obligated to indemnify his client for multimillion dollar Superfund cleanup and natural resource damages claims arising from USEPA and NJDEP actions at the Lower Passaic River Study Area.
- Prosecuted Superfund cost recovery and RCRA citizen suit against private and government parties relating to the unlawful operation of hazardous waste at a storage facility in New Jersey, which contributed to groundwater contamination threatening municipal supply wells.
- Counseled client in connection with state and municipal criminal and civil enforcement actions arising from off-site PCB-contamination as a result of decommissioning activities at a manufacturing plant in New Jersey. Defense led to the New Jersey’s Attorney General’s abandonment of criminal investigation, and a favorable settlement of civil liability with NJDEP.
- Defended real estate investment trust in MTBE groundwater contamination multi-district products liability litigation.
- Defended a dry-cleaning solvent manufacturer and a dry-cleaning equipment manufacturer in action for PCE groundwater contamination in Suffolk County, Long Island.
- Represented global chemical manufacturer in defense of over 120 personal injury suits arising from alleged exposure to PCE in “float sink” laboratories in West Virginia. Obtained client’s dismissal from all cases following preliminary discovery on product identification and causation.
- Submitted amicus curiae brief to the United States Supreme Court in landmark CERCLA action, United States v. Atlantic Research Corp.
- Represented pro bono an American mother appealing a District Court’s order that would return her daughter to Argentina pursuant to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Argued that the Convention’s “grave risk of harm” exception applied because father physically, sexually and verbally abused the child in Argentina. After oral argument, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit overturned the District Court’s order from the bench, and dismissed the father’s petition to return the child to Argentina.